I'd personally prefer leaving a stub that would direct the user to the download page for the MRT. Sure, it's one extra file compared to the leave-it-out method, but useful in case some newbie had been instructed to do Start > Run > "mrt" (I've told someone to do that before). It's easier to do than all that reshacking, anyway (which leaves a file that does nothing). Just one line...

what I said, is that RyanVM Update Pack (and subsequent intermediate update packs like code66536's) could stay integrating mrt.exe as usual.

it is the "mrt.exe stub trick" (and not the vanilla mrt.exe) that should be proposed as a separate addon.

so, the average user (for exemple if you reinstall someone's computer) has mrt.exe ready-to-use. (for exemple, that average user phones you because he grabbed AGAIN a spyware, probably due to a Russian porn site, so first you tell him to run mrt.exe, because it's already on the computer, it is quick and easy, and might solve, at least partially, the problem)

and, let's say the "advanced user" use the addon to save space and install time, because he already knows he will never use mrt.exe

to conclude, it's only a personnal suggestion, do what you consider best

Personally, I'm going to keep the stubbed MRT in my pack because it's a nice middle ground between killing MRT entirely and keeping the full MRT. Seeing as how stripping out the full MRT reduced the size of the pack by nearly half, I'm not going to put the full MRT back in. It's simply too damn big (think of the bandwidth). Besides, if anyone wants to add the full MRT back in, they could do so very easily by just dropping in the file since all the proper entries are already in txtsetup.sif and dosnet.inf (whereas re-adding the full MRT would be slightly more troublesome for a pack that has it completely removed since you'll have to re-add the dosnet and txtsetup entries).

And the advanced user would never need MRT, either full or stubbed. The whole purpose of stubbing was so that the newbie user for whom you helped reinstall the OS would be able to find the latest MRT very easily (or even run Microsoft's online scan in lieu of the offline MRT).

yes, but something a month (or... less than a month ) is already too long

major part of problems with a new user happens in the first 3-4 days in my experience

I might consider changing friends

anyway, this mrt.exe stub is really a good idea, but the final decision is up to RyanVM. at any case, this trick is and will remain useful for a lot of people (including myself), directly in the main update pack or as a separate addon.

another edit: yeah, actually I already considered the bandwidth saving finally, all possible solutions are good. they're equal or better than the current situation. so all's fine

Hehehe. Except that the sector sizes are 4K for NTFS (default setting) and 2K for optical disc ISOs. So there's no gain to be had from reducing uncompressed sizes below 4K or compressed sizes below 2K.

any one consider to make a stubbed mrt.exe with version number here? as new version of Microsoft Update (7.4.7600) check for version number of mrt.exe, hense code65536's mrt.exe won't pass new verification.

---edit 2---
I copied compiling settings from code's fontreg utility, then removed parameter "unicode" and "_unicode", then compiled again... hoorray! the file size is now 4KB and cabbed one is 1.40KB. (according to code's talk above, sector size is 2KB for optical disc ISOs, so the cabbed one won't eat more than one sector. )
here is the link
EDIT3: link removed.

---edit 3---
with help of one of my friends, finally i make it the smallest in theory. 2.5KB for uncompressed exe, and 836 bytes for cabbed one!

EDIT4: link removed.

This file can be made smaller if we remove info other than version number(such as executable description, copyright). so here it comes: 2KB for uncompressed exe and 661 bytes for cab.

EDIT4: link removed.

---edit 4---
I made the file with full version info smaller by replacing a shorter ms-dos stub.

I have been trying to compile the above but i keep getting errors.
I saved the above code in a file mrtstub.c (saved in ANSI, UTF8, Unicode....no diff)
I am using Visual Studio 2010, openning the cmd prompt and running
"cl.exe mrtstub.c"

am i using the wrong compiler?
it also failed using my old PellesC compiler also.
what should I be using and method?

The icon takes much more space than the code. Since the file will be buried in system32 with many other files and is not likely to be seen, you might consider going without the icon. Ideally, the file can be shrunk to 2 KB and still be functional.